The End
by eck
Summary: Legolas comes to the end of his time in Middle Earth...**no slash**


AUTHOR'S NOTES:  Ok…I wrote this really fast.  It just came to me and wanted to be written so I obliged.  I apologize for the lack of updates on "Corner of your Eye". Real life has been a major bear as I have been trying to get my life back in order after being in Europe for 16 days. If my muse cooperates, you'll get the next chapter sometime tonight, tomorrow, or the next day. I hope you've all had a good life…that sounded weird. Owell. Here it is.

***WARNING*** CHARACTER DEATH!!!! NO SLASH!!!! And if you hadn't already guessed….TOTALLY AU. So don't review saying stuff like "that didn't happen" or "Legolas would never do that" etc.  AU means AU!!!

Disclaimer: I have a secret for you…I know you want to hear it…ok…here it is…I'm not Tolkien, therefore I own nothing…wow…that was a big secret…

**The End**

The water was cold.  It lapped at his ankles and pulled sand from underneath his strong feet.

You swam here with me… 

Straining his eyes against the setting sun, the blonde elf tried to make out the Undying Lands, the place where all elves longed to travel.  

They call it home…but can it be home for me? 

Ruefully, he rubbed his blonde braids, feeling the silky hair.  Alone again.  It was the story of his immortal.

They said the elves longed for the sea.  Longed for the promise of the Undying Lands when the world they had known began to fade with the setting sun. Legolas stared thoughtfully at the swirling water, dancing in, out and around his feet.

How easy would it be…? 

He took one step deeper into the icy water before retreating to the sandy shore. The elves left Middle Earth when the trees faded, when people they loved died and they could not bear the pain from their broken heart any longer.  They gave themselves to the sea, allowed themselves to be drawn over its murky waters.

He knelt in the sand and pushed it in to a mound.

_How about when your best friend dies?_

His hands patted it firmly into its place and smoothed off loose particles with well-practiced strokes, creating a tightly packed hill of sand, rising above the rest of the flat beach.  

_And you held him in his dying breaths?_

Towers appeared as his hands carefully shaped them upward, stretching above the hill, defending their own kingdom built of sand.  Turrets stood watching under the starry sky, daring the water to come a little closer.

_And then you had to comfort his widow…and then watch her die of heartbreak?_

He sat back on his heels and watched as the water rushed in and carried the sand back out to sea, taking it back where it belonged, where it was meant to be.  Leaving behind, only bald stumps—remnants of what they once were; destined never to return to their former glory that they had when they were young.

_Castles made of sand… like your life, they look so proud but then time comes and destroys them. I hate time. I hate this immortal life._

Standing, he stretched his arms upward toward the crystal blue moon as it shone palely down on him.  Maybe if he reached high enough, he would no longer feel the consuming heartache that threatened to overwhelm him like a rushing tidal wave trying to crush him.

I miss him so much… Mandos, I beg entrance to your halls…show me the way to you, Estel… 

Once again his footsteps led him out to the sea.  The sun had gone to its resting place, giving an eerie cast to the grayish water.

I'm coming, Estel, I'm tired of living in a world that fades away with ever passing breath… 

The water rose up to his ankles, then to his thigh, and finally up to his chest.  His salty tears dripped down his face making soft splashes in the starry water. They mingled perfectly, becoming part of the ocean.

_Wait for me…we can make sand castles together…_

And he realized that it had all worked out now at the end of his life. He was where he was supposed to be and he would remain there forever. 

I'm coming…I've missed you so much…no one understands… 

One last time he looked back at the world he had left behind.  The sand stood white and ghost like beneath the black rocks and further back the dark trees of the forest.  Cold, inanimate.

He allowed himself to drift. Free at last, just like the river ran free through the forests, he was finally free.

_How far until I reach the end of the earth?_

It wasn't cold anymore. All that he could feel was an inner peace he hadn't felt since the last day he had been surrounded by his mortal friends.

_How far?_

Gently, like a newborn baby's sigh while he is sleeping, he left the world that had never cared or understood his pain, traveling deeper into the water, towards his final resting place.  

Then, just as his tears had become one with the stinging salt water, he melded his body into the cold water, creating an impression that would be quickly filled in by the gentle, lapping swells.

And he became the sea.

_The End_


End file.
